Brian Lara: Virat Kohli, Joe Root best current batsmen in the world

The 49-year-old also supported the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision to reduce to 10 teams in a 50-over Cricket World Cup.

While England have already sealed the series 3-1 with one match to play, Virat Kohli has already aggregated 544 runs with two hundreds and three centuries to his name. (Photo: AP)

Mumbai: West Indies great Brian Lara recently termed India captain Virat Kohli and his current Test rival Joe Root as the best batsmen in the world.

While England have already sealed the series 3-1 with one match to play, Virat Kohli has already aggregated 544 runs with two hundreds and three centuries to his name.

Lara was speaking during a Reddit As Me Anything session.

"Virat Kohli and Joe Root [are the best active batsmen in the world] while pacemen James Anderson and Kagiso Rabada [are the best active bowlers]," he said.

Lara also said that facing Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan and Australia’s Shane Warne were challenging.

"Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne always confused me in the early part of our confrontation, whilst Shane Warne didn't. Having said that, as my innings grew I felt I had more control over Muttiah, whilst Shane seemed to grow in confidence. They were definitely the two best spinners of my time.

He (Warne) played for the best team in the world during my era, he was, and still is, regarded as the best leg-spinner to play the game. It was a battle I just embraced in some of the largest cricketing arenas," he added.

The 49-year-old also supported the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision to reduce to 10 teams in a 50-over Cricket World Cup.

The most important thing for the ICC to consider is the growth of the game, where that will happen is in the T20 format. All the countries that are taking to the sport as of late are naturally attracted to T20 format since it's the most exciting.

"Moving on to the longer formats, you want good quality and intense cricket and only the best teams in the world can offer that. Therefore, I feel the number of teams in the World T20 being 16 and the number in the ODI World Cup being 10 is just right," he further stated.

The veteran was also hopeful of seeing T20I cricket in Olympics in the future.

The T20 format lasts just three hours so I don't see why it can't be included in the Olympics. It was nice to see golf get that opportunity again, it's time for cricket now," he said.